captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: a jury found john edwards not guilty on one count of accepting illegal campaign contributions. they deadlocked on five more counts leading the judge to declare a mistrial on those. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the "newshour" tonight, we get the latest on the mixed verdict on day nine of the deliberations. >> woodruff: then, we examine a plan to ban oversized sugary drinks in restaurants, movie theaters, and food carts in new york city. >> suarez: in his second report on student loans, paul solman explores the idea of letting borrowers walk away from their debts. >> student loans are treated unlike any other type of debt in

america meaning they have no consumer protections. no bankruptcy protections, no statute of limitations on the collections of those debts. >> woodruff: on our "daily download" segment, margaret warner compares how the presidential campaigns stack up on twitter. >> suarez: and gwen ifill talks to the authors of a new book about the most exclusive club in the united states with just five members, all former presidents. >> george bush said it to barack obama, at that amazing moment when all the living presidents were together at the white house. "we want you to succeed. this office transcends the individual." >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> this is the at&t network-- a living, breathing intelligence bringing people together to bring new ideas to life. >> look, it's so simple. >> in a year, the bright minds from inside and outside the company come together to work on an idea. adding to it from the road, improving it in the cloud, all in real time.

>> good idea. >> it's the at&t network. providing new ways to work together, so business works better. and the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> suarez: the announcement came this afternoon in greensboro, north carolina. former democratic presidential candidate john edwards was acquitted on one of the six counts against him. the others ended in a mistrial.

edwards had waited for nine days before the jury delivered the only verdict it could agree on: not guilty on a single count of accepting illegal campaign contributions. he spoke later, outside the federal courthouse. >> all i can say is thank goodness, we live in a country that has the kind of system that we have. i want to make sure everyone hears from me and from my voice, while i do not believe i did anything illegal, i did an awful lot that was wrong. and there is no on else who is responsible for my sins. no one in the government. >> suarez: edwards was charged with violating campaign finance laws by having wealthy donors give nearly $1 million to hide his pregnant mistress. the scandal erupted when "the national enquirer" tabloid, uncovered his affair with rielle hunter, a videographer hired to document

his bid for the 2008 democratic presidential nomination. the former senator and vice presidential nominee repeatedly denied having an affair or that he'd fathered a daughter by hunter. but ultimately, he admitted to both. this all played out as edwards' wife, elizabeth, was fighting a recurrence of breast cancer. they ultimately separated after 33 years of marriage, and elizabeth edwards died in december of 2010. to help us understand this single verdict and the judge's order, we are joined from greensboro by michael biesecker of the associated press, who has been reporting from the courtroom since the trial began. we talked late today. michael biesecker. welcome. the jury had six counts to decide. whatu entering a judgment on? >> well, they were only able to reach a unanimous decision on count three which was considered the weakest of the counts against edwards, that he

provided illegal campaign contributions to bunny mellon in 2008. they found him not guilty on that count, deadlocked on the remaining five. >> suarez: in the final stages of any trial, there's usually a procedure, a way this all predictably rolls out, but it sounds like it didn't happen this afternoon. how did you find out there was, at least, one verdict? >> well, there seemed to be a bit of miscommunication between the jury and the judge. they sent her a note saying they had made a decision on all six counts, she interpreted that to mean they had reached a verdict on all six. but when she got th'hx into the courtroom they made clear that they had only reached a unanimous decision... only had a verdict on that one count, count three and that they had been unable to reach a verdict on the other five counts. >> suarez: when a jury tells a judge it's deadlocked, she often gives special instructions. she or he may be trying to save the entire trial process. did the judge give those instructions in this case, send them back to try to finish their

work? >> she absolutely did. she read them what's called an alan charge. the alan charge is sort of a set of phrases that the judge will read to a jury in this very situation where they say they're deadlocked. basically she told them that no other 12 jurors could hear the evidence and probably render a better decision than they could and she asked them to go back and try again. however, she did tell name they should not change their firmly held opinions while listening if they were in the minority to what) vice versa. but the jury was only out for about 35 minutes sending her another note indicating that they believed no extra time would make any difference. >> suarez: so not guilty on one count, deadlocked on the five others, is this a win for john edwards or does he still remain vulnerable to federal prosecution? >> they could still retry him on those five counts as they did on rod blagojevich in illinois. second time around in the blagojevich case if government

was able to find a guilty verdict against blagojevich. however legal experts i talked to this afternoon said they would be surprised if the government tried to retry john edwards. is they had their best shot with their best witnesses and best evidence. the judge ruled ingwtñ the prosecution's favor on most of the major evidentiary issues in the case and at the end of the day the jury did not come back with the verdict the government wanted. experts i talked to said there's no indication they could do better the second time around. >> suarez: did the government have a very heavy burden in this case? because none had ever been tried like it before under these statutes. >> well, that's right. is either way, this case was going to set precedent about what campaign finance laws... how they're interpreted when they're applied to payments that went from the third party to another third party. in this case the must be never went through edwards' campaign account, it came from his established politicalwu'1 donos however he claimed not to know about the money as it was given and not to have been part of the coverup beyond knowledge that

his mistress, his pregnant mistress, was in california an aide. but he didn't know thedetails of how the money was being spent or what it was being spent for or how much. it appears that at least most of the jury or part of the jury believed him on that count and couldn't find him guilty on those charges. >> suarez: were any of the jurors available to talk to reporters after the verdicts were entered? >> the jurors were escorted to their cars out of the back of the courthouse by u.s. marshals. none of them answered requests for comment. >> suarez: john edwards himself did emerge. did he have to walk a fine line or was he able to almost pronounce himself basically vindicated by the process? >> pelley: well, it's obvious from his reaction he felt a sense of vindication with the jury's decision on the one count, the not guilty count, as well as the fact that they did not find him guilty on the others. edwards was clearly relieved, clearly happy in the courtroom, smiling at his daughter kate on the first row and hugging her,

hugging his parents, hugging his lawyers. he clearly believes that he had a win here. the concern is that the government will retry him on those five counts but when he came out he seemed buoyant, he thanked the jury for their service, he thanked his family for standing by him, especially his children, recognizing kate standing next to him, talking about his two other school aged children and especially thanking and expressing his love for his daughter with his mistress rielle hunter, frances quinn hunter who's four years old. >> suarez: does a clock start running now, michael? does the federal government decide what it's going to do within a certain time in order to match up with speedy trial law and not put edwards in continued jeopardy? >> well, they talked to some about scheduling. it sounds like they'll have to decide by september. judge catherine eagles who

oversaw the case will hold a hearing on the potential retrial. certainly the government will probably have to decide whether to refile the charges by then. >> suarez: michael biesecker of the associated press joining us from greensboro, north carolina, michael, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> woodruff: still to come on the "newshour": banning oversized sodas; forgiving student loan debt; tweeting in the presidential campaign and going inside an exclusive fraternity. but first, the other news of the day. here's kwame holman. >> holman: a federal appeals court today declared the "defense of marriage act" discriminates against gay married couples. a three-judge panel in boston found the 1996 law unconstitutionally bars same-sex couples from federal benefits granted to heterosexuals. the court did not address the law's definition of marriage, as restricted to one man and woman. the case is almost certainly bound for the u.s. supreme court. republicans in the u.s. house fell short today on a bill that would ban abortions based on gender.

the bill carried prison terms of up to five years for doctors. supporters said some immigrant groups have brought to this country a tradition of targeting female fetuses for abortion. opponents argued the government should not intrude into such private matters. there were new warnings today about europe's currency system, as continuing debt troubles roiled nation after nation. the rising concerns also rippled across the atlantic. ( explosion ) from the violence-filled streets of madrid to the poster-riddled streets of dublin, evidence of europe's economic distress was in plain sight. the urgency was underlined by president obama in a video conference late wednesday with european leaders. spokesman jay carney said today he pressed them to take action now. >> europe should take an approach that balances the near- term need to help the economy grow in europe and create jobs, with the medium and longer term

need to implement reforms that help euro nations get their fiscal houses in order. >> holman: in ireland today, voters were trying to do just that, deciding whether to ratify the european union's new fiscal treaty. saying yes would hold debt- ridden countries to tight spending limits. and "yes" votes were expected to carry, spurred by prime minister enda kenny. >> let's send that signal out from this country, not only to the european union, but to the entire world that this small country knows exactly where it is heading and that's in the right direction. >> holman: but "no" voters were just as vocal. >> austerity doesn't work. we are the proof of that and this treaty will perpetuate and institutionalize austerity. >> holman: in spain, miners staged new protests-- some that turned violent-- against austerity cuts in their industry. the clashes came as the e.u.

urged spain to figure out how to shore-up its banking sector and bring down soaring borrowing costs. and the head of the european central bank mario draghi warned the euro currency system is unsustainable, and european leaders must clarify the future. >> how is the euro going to be, to look like in a certain number of years from now. what is the union vision that you have a certain number of years from now? and i think the sooner this is specified the better it is. >> holman: the sun may set on the euro soon, in greece. the deeply indebted nation holds new elections on june 17, and could abandon a financial bailout and leave the euro altogether. the news from europe did little to help the mood on wall street. and, a new report suggested u.s. economic growth in the first quarter u.s. was slower than first estimated. in response, the dow jones industrial average lost 26

points to close at 12,393. the nasdaq fell ten points to close at 2,827. in syria, the government today blamed rebel gunmen for the massacre in houla last weekend. it said as many as 800 rebel fighters attacked security checkpoints, then slaughtered more than 100 civilians. the u.s. called that claim a blatant lie. and, in denmark, secretary of state hillary clinton said the need for strong action is growing, but russia, in particular, is standing in the way. >> the russians keep telling us they want to do everything they can to avoid a civil war, because they believe that the violence would be catastrophic. i think they are, in effect, propping up the regime at a time when we should be working on a political transition. >> holman: also today, western officials confirmed that a russian cargo ship-- loaded with weapons for the syrian government-- docked at a syrian

port over the weekend. chen guangcheng urged the u.s. to try harder today on protecting human rights in china. the blind activist sparked a diplomatic confrontation when he escaped house arrest in china last month and briefly took refuge at the u.s. embassy. he was allowed to leave china two weeks ago, to study in new york, where he held a news conference today. >> ( translated ): what i'm most concerned about is also the most important question is the state of law in china. it's still very much being trampled on. and more specifically, after i left my home in shandong, the local authorities there have been retaliating against my family in a frenzied way. >> holman: chen said he hopes china's central government will keep a promise to investigate the local authorities who imprisoned him. the first privately built spacecraft to reach the international space station ended its historic mission today. the unmanned space "x" dragon capsule parachuted across the

pacific ocean sky to a splashdown point-- 500 miles off mexico's baja california. it had spent nine days in space. nasa plans to rely on private firms, like space "x", for routine orbital flights, now that the space shuttles have been retired. 26 east coast bus companies are out of business for now for multiple safety violations. the u.s. transportation department ordered them to shut down after a year-long investigation. it followed a series of crashes on interstate 95 that killed 17 people last year. the affected bus lines carried 1,800 passengers a day. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: and we turn to a new plan to improve public health in new york city. it's attracting national attention and raising questions about whether the government is going too far. city hall's new target: that bottle of soda you may be drinking. new york city's image may be larger-than-life, but part of it's in for a downsizing.

mayor michael bloomberg is formally proposing a 16-ounce limit on high-calorie drinks sold by restaurants, movie theaters, and other vendors. grocery and convenience stores would be exempt, as would diet sodas and milk-based products. the mayor made his case on msnbc. >> it's not perfect, it's not the only answer, it's not the only cause of people being overweight but we've got to do something. >> woodruff: bloomberg has campaigned against obesity, since becoming mayor. the city already banned trans- fats in restaurant food and required chain restaurants to list calorie counts on menus. in 2010, bloomberg supported a state tax on soda-- a measure that failed in the legislature. today, the new york beverage association characterized the mayor's latest effort as zealous. a spokesman said, "the city is not going to address the obesity

issue by attacking soda because soda is not driving the obesity rates." but in his msnbc interview, bloomberg defended the idea of cutting access to big, sugared drinks. >> if you want to have multiple ones that's up to you. we're not taking away anyone's right to do anything. all we're trying to do is remind you that this is something that could be, should be-- not should be-- is detrimental to your health and to do something about this national epidemic. >> woodruff: the proposal sparked mixed reactions overnight from new yorkers. >> i don't think it's the mayor's job to decide what sort of soft drinks people in manhattan or anywhere in the world want to buy for that matter. >> overindulging is never a good thing, you know? everything in moderation, i think that's a good idea to promote. >> woodruff: if the city's board of health approves, the ban will take effect next march. like other public health measures he's passed before,

bloomberg's latest proposal is drawing heavy criticism. we take it up with new york city health commissioner, doctor thomas farley. he's also the chair of the board of health that would approve it. and andrew mosel, spokesman for the city's chapter of the new york state restaurant association. we thank you both for joining us. commissioner farley, to you first. tell us about the penalty if someone... if a consumer or restaurant were the violate this rule if it goes into effect. what happens to them? >> it's really not about penalties. what we want to do is have restaurants follow the rule that says no sugary drinks sold in a container larger than 16 ounces. but we have the option of fining them up to $200 for violating that rule. >> woodruff: and commissioner farley, why does the city think thatñtqí it's it's responsibili. the government's responsibility to tell people how much soda they should drink? >> we have a national crisis of

obesity. nationally two-thirds of americans are overweight or obese. obesity in new york city alone is costing us $4 billion a year in health care costs. there are many contributing factors to that but there no single factor is contributing to it more than the increase in consumption of sureary drinks. there's something about this product that seems to be associated with obesity and is also increasingly associated with diabetes and heart disease. portion sizes of those have grown dramatically over the last 30 years and a good study shows that portions of people served so we think people should serve portions that are not enormous, not like this 64 ounce cup that we can get in a fast food restaurant in new york city now and if people want to drink more than that they can but we'll serve them a portion size that gives them a guide as to what is the maximum appropriate size. >> woodruff: andrew mosel, doesn't the mayor and the commissioner have a point that obesity has become a serious problem in this country? >> obesity is a problem and i

agree with the mayor, i think something needs to be done. but i don't think this is it. new yorkers, as we heard during the news segment, simply don't want the government once again reaching into their plates telling them what they can eat and how much of it they can drink. we've already seen this with letter grading, we've seen it with trans fats. the mayor's talked about limiting the amount of salt and now the size of beverages. our industry is certainly opposed to this, has very concerns and the public does as well. >> woodruff: by guess my question is since obese city a problem why not encourage consumers to do the right thing? >> you use a great word "encourage." we should be encouraging consume through education both at the younger level and also the city has had public advertisements in subways and other places telling people the risks of sugary beverages in other foods. we believe that education and

proper advocacy and voluntary measures the restaurant has undertake within the city of new york and others to help new yorkers eat more healthy foods more often. but this... mandating what people can eat isn't the way to do it. >> woodruff: commissioner farley why not leave it as voluntary measures? just encourage people to limit their intake of these sugary drinks? >> well, because of the economics of supersizing restaurants are driven to offer larger sizes. the costs to give you a sureary drink or food productz&zz often pretty sick. so if a restaurant can offer you a larger size they can charge you more for it. the size of a sugary drink has risen from the 1960s to now from about six and a half ounces to coke up to 20 ounces and up with liter bottles. that's a multifold increase in portion size and it's been driven by the portions put throughout by the beverage

industry. so unless we do something we'll continue to see this major national epidemic. >> woodruff: andrew mosel, what about that point? that a lot of this is driven by how much money the beverage industry can make? >> certainly that's one of our concerns is that there's a large portion of the bottom line in some hospitality businesses that is driven by beverages. but you have to understand that restaurants don't serve food to get people su w( to make them obese. they serve product that the customer base wants to have. it's the free-market system. we think this mayor of the city of new york would understand that better anyone anyone else. we're doing this as a response to customer demand, not to bilk more money by getting people to drink sugary drinks. >> woodruff: how did you decide on 16 ounces? why not 12 ounces or eight ounce which is might be too much sugar for a smallerern? >> we certainly think 16 ounces is ample. that's 180 calories, that's about 10% of what anq person needs in a day. we want people to be... they

style still need to be responsible and we think it's ample butt- it's far less than what people are buying now. at fast food chains in new york city close to half of people are purchasing beverages that are larger than that. >> woodruff: larger than 16 ounces? >> larger than 16 ounces, yes. >> woodruff: what about the other point? i heard the mayor say to andrea mitchell on msnbc that nothing is to stop people from buying several drinks. doesn't that defeat the purpose of this? >> >> people can buy more than that so this is not limiting people's choice to drink a lot if they want to. but we know from portion size studies that if you get people a portion, they tend to consume that and if you give them larger portions they'll consume that. so even though they have that freedom by establishing the default as being a larger than 16 ounces we believe people will consume less and it will be good for everyone's health without restricting people's freedom of choice. >> woodruff: do you want to respond to that, andrew mosel? it sounds like what the city is trying to do is set a standard. just get people to think more

about what they're doing when they buy these big drinks. >> again, i have to reiterate i think the way... we have to do that through education and we have to remember we're setting a standard but we're also creating a slippery slope. if we're setting a standard on this, what's the stop us from saying we can only have 16 french fries on a plate with hamburger or one hot dog a day? hot dog vendor cans serve one to each customer. we don't want to get into that kind of debate and i don't think new yorkers do, either. >> woodruff: commissioner farley what is to stop the city from regulating french friestor size of an ice cream scoop for that matter? >> we haven't considered a portion size regulation in anything other than these sugary drinks because they are particularly associated with weight gain, especially with diabetes and heart disease and we see that as a major driver of the obesity epidemic. we are focused on that type of product here but we think thee+d magnitude of the health problem we're dealing with calls for that. >> woodruff: with all due respect isn't candy bars, french fries, aren't they contributing

as well? >> there's been an increase in the portion size of french fries but not nearly to the many kinds of increase in sugary drinks and there hasn't been that much of an increase in candy consumption. >> woodruff: finally, andrew mosel, restaurant association, how do you plan to deal with this? >> well, we're talking to our members right now, we're sti very early the process. most of the people we spoke are adamantly opposed to increased regulation of which we already face some t most stringent regulation of restaurants anywhere in the country. we're going to bring our members together with and come up with a plan. i look forward to talking with the commissioner and making adjustments or opposing things outright in the proposal of the mayor's and ultimately we'll trying to come to something that we can all deal with. >> woodruff: andrew mosel and commissioner thomas farley, the health commissioner for the city thank you very much. >> thank you.

>> suarez: now, the ever-rising burden of student debt. last night, "newshour" economics correspondent paul solman looked at the consequences for millions struggling to pay off their loans in a tough job market. tonight, he explores the question of whether major debt should be forgiven. it's part of his ongoing reporting: "making sense of financial news." >> reporter: some million-and-a- half students will graduate with a four-year degree this spring; another 700,000 with a two-year associates degree. and yet, despite a debt load averaging nearly $25,000, says robert applebaum. >> there's five applicants for every job opening and the jobs that are available don't pay enough to allow people to repay their student loans. >> reporter: applebaum is a lawyer in staten island, n.y. and a student loan activist arguing for substantial debt forgiveness.

>> what i initially proposed was full, across the board student loan forgiveness for all americans. >> reporter: applebaum has since moderated his position. but his efforts have begun to change student loan policy in america. but what is the policy right now? what's happening to it? and should we really contemplate forgiving debts legally and knowingly assumed? even some highly indebted grads have trouble with that concept. maryland teacher beth hansen, who also works three part time jobs to make ends meet, owes more than $60,000, on total income of about $45,000. >> as a member of society, i have certain rules and obligations. when you enter into a contract, you have to fulfill that contract. >> reporter: with a bachelors and law degrees, jack cazir is a $100,000 in the hole. >> i did take the money knowingly. like i knew it was a loan and...

>> reporter: recent brandeis grad benjamin beutel, who did everything he could to avoid debt, says he would resent loan forgiveness. >> i am graduating in three years. one of those years, i went to a state school. suddenly i'll wish that i have had debt because it would have saved my family and myself a lot of trouble. >> reporter: even robert applebaum is committed to paying his loans back. he graduated from fordham law school in 1998 with a $65,000 debt that grew-- unpaid interest added to principal-- to $88,000 when he deferred payments to work a low-paying public service job. >> ever since i left the d.a.s. office in 2004, i've been in repayment, i have not missed a single payment, nor do i intend to. i have never defaulted, nor do i intend to. >> reporter: but he has motivations besides morality. >> student loans are treated unlike any other type of debt in america meaning they have no

consumer protections. no bankruptcy protections, no statute of limitations on the collections of those debts. >> they can garnish up to 15% of your wages without a court order. >> reporter: mark kantrowitz is a financial aid expert, and founder of finaid.org. he points out that, of the trillion dollars worth of outstanding student loan debt, 80% is in the hands of the federal government. >> federal government can also intercept your federal and state income tax refunds; they can even offset or intercept 15% of your social security disability and retirement benefit payments. so, one way or another, the government gets its money. >> reporter: and that's just wrong, says writer and n.y.u. faculty member lawrence weschler. >> if i were to go and lose all my money at a gambling casino i can declare bankruptcy. if i were to you know be a criminal and do some horrible thing, i can declare bankruptcy. students are not allowed to declare bankruptcy.

>> reporter: we caught up with weschler and other activists at a recent conference at the new school for social research in new york, where the occupy movement was plotting its next steps. a mass movement to repudiate student loan debt has been on their agenda since the fall. >> a lot of the way people talk about it's like, "well, you shouldn't have took out that debt, you should have known better." >> reporter: brooklyn college senior biola jeje. >> we were told, "go to college whatever the cost, get an education, you'll be able to get a job after." and that's not... and that's not what's happened. >> we have to get rid of this level of debt. >> reporter: steve max has been an activist since 1951, when he organized his fifth grade anti- discrimination and firecrackers club. >> it just defies logic that we keep on going the way were going and hoping to be a competitive country. >> reporter: but the people who took out the loans made a contractual commitment to pay it back. >> they made a contractual commitment in a very different

economy. and you can say, "well, it's their tough luck, they should've known it all wasn't going to last." but their elders and betters and wisers told them to do this. >> the reason they were told to take on $100,000, $150,000 is because they would get great jobs. there are no great jobs! even the finance industry isn't hiring anymore. >> reporter: though the average student loan debt is some $25,000, six-figure obligations are common among those with graduate or professional degrees. even among children of federal reserve chairmen. >> my son in medical school recently informed me that he expected to have $400,000 in debt when he graduates from school. >> reporter: since he's becoming a doctor, the borrowing may well pay off, as it often does. but sometimes, it doesn't. >> i came from a family with not a lot of money. >> reporter: jack cazir aced high school, won scholarships to college and law school, only to wind up facing today's jobless

legal market, $100,000 in hock. >> yeah, at least $100,000. so even though i got like a 75% scholarship to a pretty good school, once i got there, the market collapsed. >> some law grads have begun suing their schools, claiming outright fraud: that the schools misrepresented their job placement record. fraud or not, though, students are not getting what they expected and borrowed for. so what's a highly indebted, un- or underemployed grad to do? >> if there's no jobs, we can't pay those student loans back. >> reporter: the occupy movement tried to organize a mass repudiation of student loan debt. it failed. no wonder, given how firmly the law is on the side of lenders. but it turns out that many of the un or underemployed protestors are probably eligible for substantial relief that they don't even know about.

>> once a borrower graduates or leaves school, it's very hard to counsel them on all their options. >> reporter: according to mark kantrowitz, because most student loan debt is federally guaranteed, most is eligible for a federal assistance program, in place since 2009, called income based repayment. but hardly anyone is using it. >> right now, about 2.25% of borrowers are actually taking advantage of income based repayment. >> reporter: 2.25%? that's all? >> 2.25%. so out of 37 million were talking 600,000-700,000. >> reporter: well, why is everybody not taking advantage of it? it would seem like a no-brainer. >> partly, it's a lack of awareness, and one of the benefits of president obama's announcement is it raised awareness not just of the new plan but of the existing plan. >> hello, north carolina! ( applause ) >> reporter: the headlines from the presidents recent whirlwind

college tour were about the interest rate on a popular federally subsidized loan for low and middle income students, which is set to double, from 3.4% to 6.8%, on july 1. >> that's basically a tax hike for more than seven million students across america. >> reporter: mr. obama called on congress to keep the rate low in his speeches, even on "late night with jimmy fallon." >> now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people. >> oh, yeah. you should listen to the president. ( laughter ) >> reporter: and when you listen to mitt romney, he also wants to keep the rate low. >> let's not kids ourselves, we're in the midst of national education emergency. >> reporter: but efforts to halt the interest rate hike have

stalled in congress since democrats and republicans disagree about how to pay for it. lost in the debate over rates, however, is a big change to income based repayment which applies to borrowers who incur new student loan debt in 2012 or later. anyone who earns less than $17,000 a year-- that's 50% over the poverty line-- will have a monthly payment of zero. those who earn more-- how much more depends on a formula-- will pay only 10% of their so-called discretionary income. after 20 years all remaining debt will be forgiven, make that ten years for anyone working in a public service job. the plan is more generous than the one already in place for borrowers with older debt and is a response to a petition for student loan debt relief on the white house's "we the people" site that drew 32,000 signatures last fall.

that petition had been started by robert applebaum. he's now got 950,000 signatures on a new petition for an even more generous program: the student loan forgiveness act of 2012. >> ten years at 10% of your discretionary income and the remaining amount is forgiven. >> reporter: the ultimate hope, of course, is that the u.s. economy revives, jobs abound, wages rise, and student loan payments become increasingly manageable. meanwhile, there are people like robert appelbaum, who after eight years of faithful loan payments, still owes $88,000 on his own student debt.

>> woodruff: now to politics. margaret warner has our look at what's lighting up the web this week. >> warner: we turn to our regular look at the campaign as it plays out in social media and on the web. for that we're joined by two journalists from the web site www.daily-download.com. lauren ash burn is the site's editor-in-chief, formerly "u.s.a. today" live and gannett broadcaster. howard kurtz is "newsweek's" washington bureau chief and host of cnn's reliable sources. welcome back to you both. before we get into the presidential campaign what about the drama that began at mid-afternoon over the john edwards verdict? what was the reaction in the twitter sphere and social media land. >> twitter has been on fire on this trial and overwhelmingly comments have been negative

against the former presidential candidate. i wonder why there's still so much passion about this. it's a campaign finance trial, edwards has been discredited for four years and i think the reason is because of the drama surrounding his late wife elizabeth and his relationship with his campaign videographer. people still care about this so it transcends the legal aspects of this trial. >> warner: so on to the presidential campaign, what's the social media buzz been about this past week >> past week really the obama campaign has been focusing on economics and on romney economics. they bought the web site term www.romneyeconomics.com and have been pushing that. stephanie cuter who works for the campaign has been very active on twitter talking about how romney is not good for the country andp♪ú his economics pls are not good for the country. >> rockne has been pushing back by raising the issue of solyndra this is the solar powered facility that went bankrupt after it got a federal loan. there were questions about

whether or not it was too koz swi the administration. so getting the campaign off the bain capital, when he worked for that campaign company and what the president was doing with federal money is his way of pushing back in this online war which plays out way sometimes in what we see in newspapers and television. >> warner: how many people are they reaching from these tweets? >> we have put that together for you. a there's a company called peak analytics that have done very interesting things. you can see president obama has 16 million twitter followers. romney 250,000 and ron paul, not too bad a showing here for someone, $296,000 followers. >> warner: so if you're a follower of these candidates, how many tweets a day would you get? >> it depends on the day. sometimes they come rapid fire

as they try to drive a particular message. the president of the united states... it's not surprising he would have more followers but what i found surprising is where these people lived because for the obama campaign nearly half are out of the country, most of those people can't vote in the u.s. election, mitt romney only 10% outside the united states. >> warner: right, but the you do the math it shows obama with six million and romney with under 500,000. so when president bush then... last week he gave a speech in iowa and then he sat down with a laptop and started tweeting answers to questions people tweeted in but he has to keep them to 140 characters. >> it was called a twitter town hall essentially. so people can tweet@barack obama and ask him a question and he will respond@joe smith and here's the answer. and it did get a lot of traffic, a lot of play.

>> and the president pushed his favorite issues such as not acting so far to stop the student loan rate from going up and they very carefully decided what message they want to push. >> but on twitter what's important what we're learning is it's not just the messes you send out but the way in which those messages are received so we have another graphic done by peak analytics that talks about this term called social the social pull of your twitter followers. you may remember the story where people looked into the quality of newt gingrich's followers and a lot of them weren't people. >> warner: what does that mean? >> obama here has 5,000 times the social pull of mitt romney and ron paul. meaning that it's an audience-based metric and it's talking about the transparency and the quality of your followers. it's not all about quantity,

it's not about having the $15 million, it's about the people who follow you and are they actively engaged with you and do they retreat you? >> i think 5,000 times the average person or 466 times in romney's case the average person. part of it means how many followers did they have rand they considered influential movers and shakers in a lot of people follow action and they don't write anything. >> warner: or retweet it. >> right. >> so they're not the people who are helpful to the candidates. >> it helps to have followers but at the same time if you have mark zuckerberg following you, that probably counts... he probably stays on facebook. >> warner: but tú85i idea is tht it's supposed to have a multiplier effect, ideally. >> that's correct. >> warner: so what is the explanation for the difference there? >> i tk/lf in part that president obama has been on twitter and has been in the world a lot longer so obviously his pull isk but with what i find interesting about this with romney and paul

there there isn't that big of a divide. >> woodruff: lauren and howie thanks again. >> suarez: finally, three of the five members of the president's club gathered at the white house today. as former president george w. bush and his wife laura returned for the unveiling of their official portraits. mr. bush's father, former president george h.w. bush watched as the current white house occupant, president barack obama, thanked his predecessor for his service. >> in this job, no decision that reaches your desk is easy; no choice you make is without costs. no matter how hard you try, you're not going to make everybody happy. i think that's something that president bush and i both learned pretty quickly. ( laughter ) and that's why from time to time, those of us who have had the privilege to hold this office find ourselves turning to the only people on earth that

know the feeling. we may have our differences politically, but the presidency transcends those differences. >> i am pleased that my portrait brings an interesting symmetry to the white house collection. it now starts and ends with a george w. ( laughter ) ( applause ) i am honored to be hanging near a man who gave me the greatest gift possible: unconditional love. and that would be number 41. ( applause ) >> suarez: two authors have looked into this special bond between current and former presidents for a new book. gwen ifill spoke with them recently. >> ifill: the most exclusive club in the world is made up of only five men, each a current or former president of the united states. over time, this president's club has acquired its own secrets, customs and loyalties that transcend politics and even mortality. "time" magazine editors nancy gibs and michael duffy tell a story in their new book "the

president's club: inside the world's most exclusive fraternity." nancy gibbs, michael duffy, welcome. >> thank you. >> ifill: nancy, this started with hoover and truman. >> the most unlikely imaginable pair of presidents. they've got nothing in common except the fact that they were both worried about what was happening in europe after world war ii. so truman secretly mails a letter to hoover asking him to come to the white house like three weeks after truman first takes office and says "can you help me? you did this after world war i, we have a problem, i need your help." and that was the start of what turned out to be a beautiful friendship. >> ifill: it also became tradition over time but it wasn't really about party lineage here. we had john kennedy trying to court eisenhower. >> right. we found over and over that actually presidents from different parties get along better than presidents from the same party which is not what we expected. we thought they'd branch out. they actually seemed to bond faster when they haveless in common. carter and ford get together.

clinton and nixon.oeç even the current president obama seemed to get along best with the first bush. so we see that not because they're so much rivals inside their party for who's the greatest president of the era. >> reporter: but there is some intraparty rivalry which i found interesting including between future presidents reagan and nixon. >> there's no question that... both men are preparing for 1968. they're both from california, conservatives, different kinds of conservatives and they spent two years dancing around each other jockeying for position not trusting the other to do the right thing. competing in behind-the-scenes all the while in public pretending everything is just fine. >> meanwhile eisenhower is secretly help guy who served him as his loyal vice president. so, yes, the club has all sorts of intrigues and skulduggery and

rivalries specially, too. >> ifill: even though eisenhower was helping out johnson during the vietnam war. >> he was, he was. there were times when johnson literally turned over meetings to eisenhower to run because he depended on him for strategic advice and just consolation for helping him manage his doubts and uncertainty about this war that was consuming his presidency and it was very comfortableing to him to have eisenhower talk him through the decisions he was making. >> ifill: i think everybody wanted eisenhower's approval. kennedy was sending him monogrammed golf balls? >> the man saved western civilization in the 1940s so by the time you get to the late '50s, certainly for truman, certainly for kennedy and definitely for johnson they all looked up to him. johnson looked for excuses for them to secretly come to washington and he sent helicopters with generals up to gettysburg saying here's the latest plan on vietnam what do

>> remember, eisenhower is the rare president who leaves office with his approval rating every bit as high as he entered. >> ifill: usually people are more battered. >> he was one of a kind. the least popular boy in the club would be jimmy carter. >> he has a disadvantage of having... he's going to be the longest living former president in american history, some late later this year in september. he has to reinvent what it means to be a former president and he does a whale of a job with that. he remakes himself into a globe trotting problem solver. he does amazing things over the next 30 years but he sometimes runs afoul of the presidents. to carter's credit, he... all of them call on them to go overseas. bush, clinton, bush and obama have all turned to him for secret missions and normally hest most of what they send him overseas to. do sometime he is does go off the script. sometimes goes in front of cameras before he reports back

and mostly decide he's mostly with it. >> ifill: whereas bill clinton is the most popular. >> george herbert walker bush had one actual son follow them to the white house and one surrogate son following him. barbara bush thinks that bill clinton found the father he never knew in george herbert walker bush. so that relationship between clinton and the bush clan especially is just remarkable. >> ifill: this is one of these cases where h.w. bush... he did have a son who was president and a member of the club. did they get along? did they swap stories? >> that relationship, at least while the second bush was in office, seems to be one of more traditional father and son. i think the older man decided that bush had plenty ofó9 but he only had one dad and decided that was the role he could best play and so through what was a very difficult eight years for the son what we saw and all we could really find was really@$vj the son comforting te father because of his anxiety

about what his son was going through. >> ifill: i was struck recently by the reluctance of president george w. bush to get involved in the republican primary contest this year, partly because of club rules. >> he has been very vigilant about adhering to protocol and what he said when he left office is president obama deserves my silence and so he pretty much went off the grid, went totally dark and just recently has started to come out more. he and bill clinton did a fund-raiser together-- which was interesting. but what he said about obama is i don't think it is good for our country to undermine our president and i don't intend to do so. and he's pretty much stouk that rule-- unlike his vice president who >> well, we'll see what kind of role george w. bush is given at the convention later this summer by his own party and his own timetable, his return to politics remains uncertain. >> ifill: one of the things that struck me in reading this book

is how well people got along across party lines. how much they realized that protecting the presidency was the most important thing at a time in which we hear and spend so much time talking about people at war who are going to the corners and not finding middle ground anymore. >> these guys are not perfect but we felt like they were speaking a different language than what we hear now. again and again and again they talk about protecting the office talk about america needing a strong successful presidency and wanting to dodpn whatever they needed to do to help. george bush said it to barack obama at the amazing moment when all the living presidents were together at the white house and he said "we want you to succeed. this office transcends the individual." and this is sort of the central protocol of this group. >> you were reporting and researching and diving into the %ñ, did you come across tidbits that you thought, gee, that tells it for me.

>> just that clinton could have a relationship with richard nixon and have both men take nourishment from it tells us there's something going nonthis fraternity we didn't expect. clinton gets hard-headed advice from nixon. nixon is at this point well into his 80s and nixon feels as if he's back finally being heard by n a way he was never heard by reagan or ford or bush one. and so for nixon there was a redemption in this. a real redemption. coming from someone like clinton, a democrat i would never have guessed. >> ifill: how about you? >> my moment of clarity came when truman and eisenhower-- who worked really closely together-- had an incredible grudge match! spoke throughout eisenhower's presidency are yet able to reconcile with one another driving home together from the burial of john f. kennedy where truman invites eisenhower in for

a drink and they have a long talk and find the original bond they had had where the petty grievances at that point fell away. these relationships are about something so much deeper than party or politics or personality and that was that was what struck me again and again. >> ifill: "the president's club: inside the world's most exclusive fraternity." nancy gibbs, michael duffy, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> suarez: on our website, we've collected photos of presidents together, from herbert hoover and harry truman to the four living former presidents with the current commander-in-chief. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: a federal jury in north carolina found john edwards not guilty on one count of accepting illegal campaign contributions to hide his mistress. the panel deadlocked on five more counts,and the judge declare a mistrial on those.

the federal appeals court declared part of the defense of marriage act unconstitutional. the court said it discriminates against gay married couples by denying benefits granted to heterosexuals. online, it's science thursday. kwame holman has the details. kwame? >> holman: hari sreenivasan spoke with a louisiana resident whose coastal home is nearly uninhabitable due to rising sea levels, sinking land and storms. a preview of tomorrow's broadcast report is on our science page. also, find more details about chinese activist chen guangcheng's speech today in new york city. that's on our world page. all that and more is on our web site: newshour.pbs.org. ray? >> suarez: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm ray suarez. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks among others. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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